Red Deer Advocate
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Tasered Man Dies
By BRENDA KOSSOWAN
Advocate staff
Aug 31 2006
An autopsy will be performed today on a man who had been in a coma since a violent arrest in Red Deer on Aug. 10.
Red Deer RCMP Supt. Brian Simpson confirmed late Wednesday afternoon that Jason Doan, 28, died earlier in the day.
Police used a Taser to subdue a suspect after responding to reports that a man was using a pitchfork to smash vehicles parked along Overdown Drive.
Cpl. Sandy Andrews, a media liaison officer for the City RCMP, confirmed shortly after the incident that police used the Taser — an electric stun gun that causes temporary paralysis — to “assist in apprehending the suspect.”
Andrews indicated at the time that the suspect resisted arrest and an altercation ensued, during which a police officer and a citizen were both injured.
Doan collapsed at the scene and eyewitness said they saw fire-medics administering CPR before the ambulance took him away.
Days after the arrest, police declined to shed further light on what had happened at the scene, confirming only that officers hit Doan three times with the Taser.
Police did not say whether Doan suffered other injuries during the arrest or if he had a pre-existing condition that may have led to his collapse.
Simpson later said the RCMP view Tasers — Taser International’s trademark name for a conducted energy weapon — as a safe use of force that poses less risk than other forms of control, such as firearms.
Simpson said that he knows of no incident where a Taser has been directly linked to the death of a suspect.
Amnesty International, however, reports that 14 people in Canada died after being Tasered between April 2003 and December 2005.
Tasers administer a shock of up to 50,000 volts.
In a brief statement issued late Wednesday, Andrews said Doan’s death is under investigation by the Alberta Medical Examiner and that the Calgary Police Service is reviewing the investigation.
Doan’s family has declined to speak about his death or the incidents leading up to it.
2 comments:
The problem here is, people who know you who haven't heard from you in a while may think this is you, and then they'll get to "reports that a man was using a pitchfork to smash vehicles" and then they'll be sure it was you.
Don't be ridiculous, if I was smashing stuff I'd be using a sledgehammer...pitchfork, pffffft, way to mundane.
One time a guy who was the same age as a friend of mine and had the same name and was from the same city died and my buddies phone didn't stop ringing for 2 days. He just started answering the phone "Hi, this is Ryan, I'm not dead."
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